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IMMIGRATION: Money scams target fearful migrants

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AVOIDING SCAMS

Authorities offer tips to help people avoid being caught in common scams.

– Never pay a fee to claim a prize.

– Calls from federal, state and local agencies, including utilities, demanding immediate payment likely are bogus. If you think you owe money, look up the agency's phone number and place a call yourself.

– If someone claiming to be a relative calls to say he is in a hospital or jail and needs money immediately, hang up and contact the person yourself.

– Make sure when conducting business online that you type URLs accurately. Some fake websites have similar URLs.

– Do not click on email links that seem suspicious, demand money or offer a prize or money in exchange for a fee.

– If someone calls to demand money for a bill or to claim a prize, don't purchase a GreenDot card -- it's the same as cash -- or provide the serial number. The money you load on the card will be taken without a trace. GreenDot cards are legitimate ways to pay for items, but don't fall for a trap.

– Be careful about personal information you post on Facebook and other social media. Nothing is private.

– Make sure elderly relatives are familiar with scams.

– If victimized, call police. The call will help warn other potential victims.

Source: Law enforcement agencies

A UC Riverside student from India was scammed out of $923 by a person claiming to be from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who demanded a fee to take her off a “blacklist,” one of the latest rip-offs of a vulnerable part of the population.

Kavita Sharma had applied for a change in her visa application and provided her address and phone number, UCR Detective Tricia Harding wrote in an affidavit filed in Superior Court requesting a search warrant for records from Western Union.

Soon after, someone supposedly from Homeland Security called, and he had Sharma’s Social Security number, date and place of birth and even her parents’ names. The man told Sharma that her application had been rejected and that she had been “blacklisted,” the affidavit said.

Sharma asked to speak to the man’s supervisor, but he said he was the “highest authority.” He gave her less than two hours to obtain documents from her parents in India, which she could not accomplish. He then told Sharma she could get off the blacklist if she wired him $923 via Western Union. She complied.

Sharma grew more suspicious when he called back and asked for $1,500. Sharma did not send the money.

Harding, in a phone interview on Thursday, said Western Union was unable to provide the identity of the person who received the money. She suspects that person is in India, out of reach of American authorities.

It’s unclear how the someone got so much of Sharma’s personal information. Scammers have created fake websites that appear similar to ones where immigrants can update their status. Other websites, operated by legitimate vendors, collect personal information as they assist immigrants with paperwork for a fee.

COMMON CRIME

The ruse appears to be a variation of other schemes perpetrated by people claiming to represent Homeland Security or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The callers target undocumented immigrants or foreigners legally staying in the United States. People who have posted their stories on ComplaintWire.org say scammers claim that there is a problem with paperwork or verification of identity, and that the victims face deportation if they fail to send money immediately.

Victims are sometimes asked to wire money through Western Union or load money onto a Green Dot card and provide the serial number, which allows the scammers to transfer the money from the card to their bank account. The victims, afraid of being deported and often equally afraid to verify the claims with authorities, fall for the schemes and hastily send off hundreds or thousands of dollars.

“It is common,” said Luz Gallegos, community programs director for the TODEC Legal Center in Perris, which assists immigrants with educational, economic and citizenship issues. Gallegos said a student came to TODEC recently after someone who claimed to be from Homeland Security called to demand money. The student was persuaded not to send the money.

Gallegos said TODEC tells immigrants to be careful about giving out personal information – even discussing it aloud with friends at a restaurant – because they don’t know who is listening. Scammers who obtain that information use it to sound knowledgeable about the victim in scam calls or emails.

Immigrants are scammed in a variety of ways, Gallegos said. One Inland family got taken for $2,500 after receiving a call, supposedly from Social Security, demanding that they repay a non-existent overpayment. The caller threatened to suspend medical services to the family until repayment was made. Scammers claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service also prey on immigrants, Gallegos said.

Federal and state agencies – immigration, Social Security, the IRS and the unemployment department – will not contact people by phone, Gallegos said, and those calls, as well as text messages, should be ignored. Instead, agencies make contact by mail on official letterheads.

TODEC’s effort to warn its clients, she said, “is an ongoing campaign.”

OTHER VICTIMS

Of course, immigrants are not the only victims in what seems like a tsunami of theft by deception the past couple of years. Elderly people are targeted because scammers believe they are sitting on large nest eggs and that they are more trusting that younger people. Anyone down on his or her luck or appearing to be greedy is another prime target.

“The people doing scams, they always find the most vulnerable community,” Gallegos said.

Victims are often frustrated that law enforcement officials say there is little they can do to help. Scammers making phone calls and sending emails often do so from the safety of a foreign country and can’t be traced.

The best police can do sometimes is take the information to compile a database to share with other agencies and warn the public about common scams.

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